Arrival day at a lodge is often the most exciting and this one was pretty good! Walter drove me here at Selva Verde Lodge Sarapiqui with a stop at Cinchona and though it looked doubtful at first I got one of the two rooms on the river which got me a toucan shot (across river) and the excitement of two different whitewater rafting groups going by my room this afternoon, even though it rained much of the afternoon. I have 5 tours or hikes scheduled so far for the week, so ready to go! 🙂
Lodge Shots
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Whitewater Rafters by My Room
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Flowers
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Tomorrow morning at 5:20 AM I leave for birding at La Selva Research Station and tomorrow evening “Frogging” here at Selva Verde – a good day expected! 🙂
My 3rd Christmas living in Costa Rica (2016) was spent at Selva Verde Lodge Sarapiqui, a birding “Hot Spot” in Costa Rica. Tomorrow (Thursday) I return and because I liked my room so much last time, I requested the same one. That is not always possible, but we will see. See My 2016 Photos.
I’m staying longer this time, not driving, and expect to relax more as well as photograph a lot of birds. Stay tuned for a lot of photo reports. 🙂 And enroute tomorrow morning my driver and I will stop at Soda & Mirador Cinchona for breakfast where I hope to photograph my first Barbet in the Americas. I photographed a different variety in The Gambia. They hang out at Cinchona some.
Bajo del Tigre Reserveis the smallest of the nature reserves within Monteverde even though it is a part of the largest total Nature Reserve in Costa Rica called Children’s Eternal Rainforest or better known here by its Spanish name Bosque Eterno de los Niños. The better part around Monteverde is outside of town in the forests where you must stay in cabins to see many birds or other wildlife. And the very best area of the bigger reserve for birds is east of here near Arenal which I hope to visit sometime.
Here’s my better photos of wildlife seen in about 2.5 hours on the Bajo del Tigre Trail. The close-up of a Three-wattled Bellbird was when he came down near us (me & my private guide) feeding or looking for fruit to eat. Wild avocados are ripe right now. 🙂
Bajo del Tigre Wildlife
Red-tailed Squirrel
Brown Jay
Three-wattled Bellbird
Armadillo
Brown-hooded Parrot
Emerald Toucanet
Long-tailed Manakin
Lesson’s Motmot (formerly Blue-crowned)
“Away, away, from men and towns, To the wild wood and the downs, — To the silent wilderness, Where the soul need not repress its music.”
—Percy Bysshe Shelley
I really got a lot of good photos on this last trip and finally have them culled and organized into a gallery for the trip. See this newest photo gallery at:
I’m not doing a photo book on this trip yet but plan on a book of the area after two more trips there, giving a broader picture of the Jaco-Carara Mid-Pacific Costa Rica. I have trips to that area in both June and July, so a book in August maybe? And it will include my earlier trips to Carara, Tarcoles and Jaco – so maybe a larger-format book. Change is good.
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
Punta Leona is big and hotel rooms are in different clusters – mine in Selvamar, Haiti Sidewalk (Between Cuba & Jamaica Sidewalks) where each group of little cabins is named after a Latin American country. So I was Selvamar, Haiti 852. It seems newer than some other areas of hotel rooms and has its own restaurant called Carabelas which is suppose to be Peruvian food, all three meals served buffet style. That is typical of a place that caters to tour buses of which there were a few here. And how Peruvian is debatable, though almost everything was good. I ate at the Mantas Beach restaurant Marinos twice and the Playa Blanca Restaurant once a la carte. Both featuring fast casual food. I don’t rate Punta Leona very high for food, but okay. The room was very nice and by putting the little sign on my doorknob “clean now” it was clean after breakfast every morning! Nice!
Like all of the many buildings at Punta Leona, they have tried to save the old big trees with these cabins nestled in among old trees and new trees and other plants added. Nature is central here which I appreciate.
Selvamar Grounds
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My Room
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Restaurant & Pool
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All we need, really, is a change from a near frigid to a tropical attitude of mind. ~Marjory Stoneman Douglas
Punta Leona is huge and having a car here would be helpful, though they do have shuttle vans when available, but as always, the walking is good for me! 🙂 And I’m exhausted from walking several hours today!
Sidewalk leading from Reception Lobby
They are strict about the 3PM check-in time meaning they held my luggage from my 11AM arrival until 3 at the front desk while I explored, photographing birds and butterflies in their above-average butterfly garden, finding the Scarlet Macaws and their nest boxes that are all very, very high in very, very tall old trees.
I walked to the closest beach, Mantas Beach and may wait for the shuttle to see Playa Blanca. In the midst of what must have been a gorgeous old-growth forest they have placed buildings of all kinds while saving a lot more big old trees than most developers, but it is still a development with houses, condos, hotels, cabins, restaurants, etc.
Groove-billed Ani
Except for the Scarlet Macaws, all the birds I saw today are pretty common all over Costa Rica. I’m doing the 6AM birding hike on property in the morning (Wed) and Thursday morning I’m going with a guide to Carara National Park. The transportation to Tarcoles River is pretty expensive, so I decided to pass on that, since I’ve been there about 8 or 9 times! The rest of the week I’ll just explore their huge property. And oh yeah, I have to wear one of those plastic bracelets while on the property, 🙂
The book is now finished with photos from 3 different trips to Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica and I think it is pretty interesting. You can go to the book online and Preview it electronically free! And of course best seen at fullscreen since it is all photos. Click this link or the book image below for the preview:
My usual next step after a series of blog posts on a Costa Rica lodge visit is to post in my GALLERY another TRIPS sub-gallery on that particular visit and here it is:
After saying last night’s post was the last from Tortuguero, I found the tree photos and just have to add one more Tortuguero post! 🙂
I did not focus on trees nor photograph all the neat and big ones seen in Tortuguero but here is a sample of the great variety of trees there and all over Costa Rica. Click image to enlarge:
Dead Tree Hosting Lichen
River Rooted
A Strangler Fig Tree Growing around another tree
Walking Palm
A Rainforest is Trees +
Tree Hosting a Vine
Lots of roots
Limbs are Like Vines
A Broad Base of Roots
Makes me think “Tropical Weeping Willow”
Strange & Different Fruit
Many Types of Trees
Tree Hosting Moss
Palmetto Tree ?
“Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky. ”
― Kahlil Gibran
For more tree and flower photos see my galleries called FLORA & FOREST
I know that the flowers I show from different Costa Rica locations are often the same species but they are all different to me with each individual flower a particular work of art with its own personality! So here’s a few from my 3 nights at Tortuguero Turtle Beach Lodge – most in their gardens but a few photographed in the wild rainforest where there are especially a lot of Heliconia. Click to enlarge or start manual slideshow. Enjoy!
Daisy?
Tibouchina or Princess Flower
Heliconia in the wild
One of the Many Orchids
Button Ginger
Banana Plant
Peacock Flower
Maybe a Wild Hydrangea
Passion Flower
Heliconia
Heliconia
Pink Ginger
Red Ginger
Hibiscus
Heliconia
The Amen of nature is always a flower.
~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
And that will be the “Amen” of my Tortuguero reports until I finish the photo gallery to send you to and then the book which will cover all 3 trips there. I always have something fun to work on! 🙂 And you might like seeing some of my other Costa Rica flower photos in my FLORA & FOREST Gallery. Or if particularly interested in Tortuguero and the Caribbean side of Costa Rica, then the sub-gallery CARIBBEAN COAST flowers gallery.
